WGA East Council Votes Unanimously To Resume Organizing Digital Newsrooms

deadline.com:

The WGA East has resumed its organizing of digital newsrooms after a pause amid concerns that news writers and producers were on the verge of becoming a majority of the guild’s membership.That concern played out last summer in the guild’s officer and Council elections, with secretary-treasurer-elect Chris Kyle, running unopposed, warning that the influx of news writers and producers posed “an existential threat to the guild” that could lead to it “collapsing.”Only a few years ago, the vast majority of the guild’s members were film and scripted television writers.

But over the half-decade, an aggressive campaign to organize dozens of digital news outlets including Salon, Slate and HuffPost has changed the union’s demographics dramatically, with its news sectors — broadcast and digital — now approaching 50% of the total membership.During last summer’s elections, which amounted to a referendum on the future of the guild, president-elect Michael Winship, also running unopposed, told Deadline that the organizing of digital media had “triggered a flow” of so many new members “that we needed to stop for a while – just pause for a while – and access where we are.”Michael Winship Elected President Of WGA East, But His Slate Takes A Drubbing In Council RacesThe guild’s opposition Solidarity slate, however, dominated the contested Council races, campaigning on the belief that “it’s important that we continue to organize the entire industry.”The two factions now have come together, however, with the Council voting unanimously to resume organizing digital newsrooms.

In a statement, the guild said: “As the media industry continues to unionize across sectors, the WGAE Council is deliberating how to address changes in the make-up of the